


strapped

by heyimal_ex



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: The Cult, Violence, but tbh leans towards romantic, can be read as romantic or platonic, creepy descriptions, hurt sal, kinda graphic depictions of violence?, no beta we die like men, protective larry, really larry + sal centric, theres just nothing explicitly referencing a romantic relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 17:28:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyimal_ex/pseuds/heyimal_ex
Summary: when the cult can’t get their hands on todd, they go for the second best thing. too bad sal happens to be in the right place, at the right time, and with no backup.aka - the cult tries to cut into & use sal as a “vessel” of sorts for the black eyed demon instead of todd. larry isn’t too happy about it.





	strapped

“that should be the last of ‘em.”

a loud thump echoed through the room as sal dropped the box with little care, hands immediately drifting back and rubbing the sore muscles on his back. tilting his neck to the side, a nauseating crack sounded, and a wince decorated his face. 

“i could’ve grabbed that one, you know.” chuckled larry, walking over and affectionately bumping arms with the other. “your tiny noodle arms can only handle so much.”

“shut it.” sal responded, but he was grinning underneath his mask. “i’m just happy it’s done. you’re officially moved in, larry face. how does the new place feel?”

larry let out a loud sigh, jokingly stumbling his way over to his new mattress and collapsing on to it dramatically. “heaven.” he mumbled, words muffled by the mattress. “absolute heaven. i’m not in a basement anymore!”

sal chuckled, flickering on the lights and leaning on the wall. “you’re free. the fresh air must be clearing your senses already.” his head tilted both towards larrys personal stash of weed, and then upstairs, towards todd and neil’s room (todd and neil never smoked, but due to todd’s upbringing, he always brought the general air with him. he hated it when you told him that, though.)

“yep. i’m thinkin better already.” larry sat up, winking at the other as he fumbled to tie up his hair. “i’m gonna start unpacking my stuff. lemme know when dinners re-“

before he could finish, the door swung open, nearly squishing the smaller of the males in the process. sal jumped back just in time, cursing under his breath as todd stepped frantically into the room. he was breathing hard, his hair was disheveled, and he looked an all around mess. 

“we gotta get down to the apartments.” were the first words out of his mouth, reaching out and snagging sals sleeve in his hands. the smaller of the two had little time to protest before he was being dragged, panic making the air thick and hard to breath in. “my dad texted me panicking and now he’s not responding. i think the cults back.”

“what?!” in a yank, sal claimed back his arm, looking at the other with wide eyes. “what do you mean? how do you know?”

“my dad was texting me. he said the apartment felt weird. he got really panicky, he told me he thought he was going insane with everything he was seeing, and now he’s not responding. someone has to get down there, man.”

sal glanced back at larry, who had trailed them out of the room, listening with wide and equally as nervous eyes. 

“i can grab my guitar and be out of here in five. larry, you comin?”

“i-i don’t know where my stuff is. it’s packed away. i can meet you there in ten, tops.” larry stuttered out, eyes darting between the two males in front of him. 

todd, sadly, nodded with agreement. “neil accidentally put my stuff away, too. he can’t find the password but he’s looking right now.”

“okay.” sal nodded quickly, and his feet were carrying him before he knew where he was going. he made a beeline for him room and exited just moments later, guitar swung sloppily over his shoulder and hair pulled into a haphazard bun. “i’ll go alone. i can see what’s goin on and by the time you guys get there, we can all take this shit on together.”

“woah-“ the tallest of the males was leaned over one of his boxes, rooting through it in desperate hopes of finding his ghost-hunting tools. “you’re not going alone! if this cult is back, it seems to really like you, sal. you can’t go without backup.”

“if something’s happening, it could be too late by the time we get there on their own. someone needs to be there as soon as possible to keep people from being hurt!” sal argued, looking at the other and silently begging him to agree. he despised arguing with larry, but his dad was in the apartments, and the idea of letting yet another parent slip through his hand while doing nothing to help left him feeling out of breath. 

“i-“ larry cut himself off, and, after a few moments of chewing on his bottom lip, nodded instead. “please be careful, sal. don’t do any crazy shit until we’re there to back you up.”

determination filled sals eyes as he nodded, said goodbye to his best friend and roommate, and then slipped silently out of his apartment, s running pace set as he barreled his way towards his own home. 

 

the moment sal entered the apartments, he could feel the air shift inside his bones. everything felt wrong and out of place, as if someone has snuck in and moved everything two inches to the left. he called out, asking if anyone was there - but the silence that met him instead was louder than any person who could’ve responded. 

he knocked on addisons apartment door. no response. he swallowed the lump of doubt in his throat and moved on. 

on every single door, he knocked. not a single one wielded results. his heart constricted in his chest when there was no response from his own father, but, at that point, he expected as much. 

he was so caught up in his own thoughts, racing from door to door, that he didn’t notice the muffled movement of people behind him, shuffling their way down the stairs from the fifth floor and using cautious steps to stay quiet. arms wrapped around his neck, and before he could even scream, sal was out cold. his guitar clattered to the floor, broken and disregarded amongst the rest of the rubble. 

 

when sal awoke, he was almost positive he was dead. he didn’t remember anything other than fear before he passed out, and now he was faced with a completely black vision. was this death? was there really nothing? there had to be something, he had met ghosts before. maybe some people stayed and others moved on? 

as the ringing in his ears began to subdue, he became aware of people chattering quietly around him, and the fear in his chest only grew. no, he wasn’t dead - but he was potentially in a much worse situation. 

hands snaked around the sides of his head, and nimble fingers shuffled and undid the blindfold over his eyes. shock filled him as he stared up at the cold, dead expression of father phelps, the man glaring down at him as if he were nothing but cattle. instinct kicked in and he tried desperately to move his arms, kick, scream, anything - but his legs and arms were restricted, and the voice he used to have got stuck in his throat. no matter how much his mind begged him too, he couldn’t find it in himself to make a sound. 

“sal fisher.” the pastors voice sent a spark of fear down sals already frozen spine. “what a perfect candidate. a deformed face to match a deformed soul.” hands drifted, and sal shivered as the clammy fingers ran their way over his scars and divots. “you must relax, sal. all he wants to do is help you.”

someone in front of them grabbed sals arms, keeping them down stubbornly. there was shuffling, and before sal could even begin to think, he felt something sharp and unforgiving press into his skin. it began to carve, whoever wielding it intending to kill. 

finally, the blue haired boy found his voice, and he screamed. he was hyperventilating, chest heaving up and down as pain flowed through him like a river. he felt blood dribble down his skin, sweat sticking to him like rain, fists clenching until they were pure white under the pressure. hands kept stroking his face, cooing and growling the entire time. 

“perfect. he’ll be here soon. you’ll be weak, and he’ll take over. you must relax, sal. he is not bad. he is going to cleanse us, cleanse this disgusting society.”

“let me go-“ sal rasped, the uselessness of the attempt all too real. his vision was beginning to fade, but the man mutilating his skin hadn’t stepped. he was going over cuts he had already made, the bubbles of sobs that spilled over sals lips doing nothing to slow or deter him. 

“go to sleep, sal.” the words were smooth to a muddled brain. they were enticing, almost. he desperately wanted to follow them, to do anything to let go and rid of the red hot burning that was feeling his body from the top of his toes up. 

“go to slee-“

“get your hands off of him!”

just like the knife was there one moment, it was gone the next. in the distance, sal could hear grunting, the sounds of an altercation. a weak and shaky smile skipped across his face - larry was there. even if he was dying, larry had come to save him none the less. 

hands circled around him, and he tensed before recognizing the differences. unlike the pastors, larry’s hands were familiar - they didn’t grip him, anger evident in the fingertips, but he guided him, soft and as gentle as can be. his voice slowly pervaded sal’s senses, although every noise that reached him at the moment sounded distinctly underwater-like. 

“sal! can you hear me? shit, please say you can hear me.” the clasps that restrained his arms and legs were lifted at last, revealing the bruising and cuts that marred the usually sensitive and pure wrists. hands curled around his shoulders and hoisted, immediately stopping when the smaller of the group let out a desperate sob of pain. 

“larry.” he slurred. “everything hurts.”

“i know. i know.” although his vision was completely shot, sal could feel larry as he moved around him. the taller of the two made sure to keep his hands wherever he was closest, reassuring sal that he hadn’t left, and making sure that he wouldn’t startle the other by suddenly touching him from a different direction. 

“i have to pick you up, okay? it’s gonna hurt but i gotta get you out of here, dude.”

all sal could muster was a nod. consciousness was slipping from him faster than ever, eyes screwed shut as he breathed lightly and faintly. larry moves as fast as he could, hands slipping cautiously underneath the bend in sals kneecap and the stability between his shoulder blades. counting down from three under his breath, he murmured one last apology in advance, and then heaved the body into the air. 

sal couldn’t help the short scream of pain that slipped past his lips, but he immediately scrambled to tuck his head into larry’s neck to assure there wouldn’t be another one. sal could hear larry’s breath hitch - he barely ever heard the other cry - and a hand drifted up, threading itself into his sweaty, matted and somehow bloodied hair. 

“you’re gonna be fine, baby blue.” if sal weren’t losing so much blood, he may have blushed. larry only used the nickname in very affectionate settings. “you’re gonna be okay but you gotta keep your eyes open for me, man.”

“no promises.” sal’s words were muffled against the others skin. “everything hurts, larry. not sure how much longer i can stay awake here.”

“you gotta.” larry sounded like he was begging, and it did nothing to comfort sal - he hated the fact that he was responsible for his best friends pain. “you’re not allowed to leave me. we just got a house together. we were gonna spend our lives together, right? we were gonna be together forever. i love you, man. i can’t go through this shit without you. you gotta stay with me, sal.”

sal let out an airy laugh. they were on the move, now, with larry’s long and lanky legs carrying them as quickly as they could. while larry tried his best to still the others movements, sal was still jostled around quite a bit, whimpering at the sometimes sudden and aggressive jolts. 

in the far, far distance, he could swear he heard sirens. ash or todd must have called an ambulance, but he had no clue where they were now.

just like that, the movement stopped, and the familiar smell of musk and tea told sal that they must be by the front door, nearby to addisons apartment. he was placed down gently, head lolling against the wall, and a new voice joined the duo. 

“let me see what’s wrong.” todd. that was a bit of a comfort. todd probably knew the most weird medical facts out of all of them. which, given, wasn’t hard, but still. larry’s hand still gripped sals as todd leaned down, examining the wound. 

“i need - ash, give me your sweater.” there was shifting, and suddenly, a hand was being placed on sals back, guiding it into an arched position. sal held back whimpers of pain as todd wrapped the material of the sweater tightly around his stomach, only crying out in pain once todd pressed it aggressively against the wound. 

“i’m sorry, sal.” todd sounded just as tortured as larry. “i need to stop the bleeding as much as possible or you have no chance.”

“nah.” sal shook his head, although it appeared more as him simply flopping it from side to side in his current state. “didn’t hurt at all. i can go for another round.”

“now’s not the time to be joking.” larry had never sounded so scared, hand gripping sals like it may be the last time they touched, the last time they could be truly near to each other. sal realized, with a pit in his stomach, that it may very well be. 

“i’m kinda sick of scars.” he said all of a sudden, although his rasping in between words made it take a while for the words to get out. “i’ve got so many, y’know? first my face, my arms, my neck, and now i’m gonna have a big, gnarly one across my stomach. they might as well be trophies at this point.”

“please stop.” larry whispered, hands reaching out and wiping sals sweat slicked bangs out of his eyes. the sirens were getting louder now. “you’re wasting your energy.”

“i’m making your possible last moments with me as least-painful as possible.” sal mumbled, but the last few words were slurred. 

if larry said something in response, sal didn’t catch it. in fact, he was falling to the side before he even realized he was moving. hands quickly caught him, and he could hear his friends screaming his name in the distance, begging him to stay awake, but the last thing he saw before he passed out were the glaring eyes of the red eyed demon, and then silence and darkness pervaded his existence. 

 

 

“larry. you haven’t moved in days. come grab lunch with us at the cafeteria. please?”

“go without me.” larry didn’t even look up at them, or give any external indication that he was aware of their presence other than responding. his eyes were fixated on sal, on the rise and fall of his chest, and on their hands, interlocked since the moment he was allowed into the room. 

he was pretty sure he had lost feeling in his butt long ago, and his back ached from sleeping in the chair, but there was no way he was leaving sal until he was better. ashley practically had to spoon feed him, as is. 

a defeated sigh left lisa’s mouth. the fact that she was the only adult there - sal’s father had came, but scurried off for work - only managed to anger larry more. he liked sal’s dad, thought he was a decent guy, but he reserved no time for his child and larry knew it would hurt sal to know his father hadn’t been performing a whole lot of visits to check up on him. 

larry, however, was most scared of sal waking up and no one being there. when he had passed out, he had looked terrified, the hand that was weakly gripping larry’s arm in a terrified hold sliding limply to the ground and falling by his side. 

larry would never shake that image, nor the fear he felt in his heart, for as long as he lived. 

“if you say so.” ash shook her head, stepping dejectedly out of the room. “you heard from the doctors themselves that we got sal in time, larry. he’s gonna wake up, it just may take some time. you don’t have to watch him like a hawk.”

larry didn’t respond. lisa and ashley, with slumped shoulders, left the room to get three lunches. 

running his thumb over the back of sal’s smooth hand, the taller of the two began to speak, wanting more than anything to fill the silence of the room. “i know it’s only been three days, but it feels like three years without you here. puts into perspective how dependent i am on you, huh? what would i do if you died, sal? i gotta-“ he stopped to swallow the lump in his throat “- i gotta protect you better. gotta be there for you.”

he wasn’t aware of how tightly he was squeezing the others hand before it began to squeeze back, the boy jumping up from his seat so quickly that it clattered to the ground behind him. his first instinct was to burst into tears (embarrassingly enough) but he immediately wiped them away and leaned down right as sals’ eyes began to open. 

they didn’t even exchange hellos before larry was on top of the other, giving him a tight - yet still cautious - hug. silence filled the room as larry fought back sobs, his head buried against the others neck and shoulder. 

slowly, hands reached up, and sal was hugging the other back. 

larry pulled back just as quickly as he had went in, and before he was even thinking, words were pouring out of his mouth, hands gripping the others shoulders tighter than they probably should. 

“sal if you ever scare me like that again i’ll kick the everliving shit out of you.”

for a moment, sal just stared at the other, blinking slowly with confusion on his face. then, however, a smile spread across his features, and he was giggling. a wince covered his face as he shifted the wound, but he continued to laugh nonetheless. 

it was music to larry’s ears. 

“sorry, bro. next time a freaky cult leader wants to turn me into a vessel for its home, ill try not to get cut open.”

“you fucking better.” larry’s hand found sal’s again, and there they stayed, carefully and tightly intertwined. “we can’t go back to the apartments for a while. we seemed to disrupt whatever the cult was planning that night by saving you, but it’s still out there. of course the town dismissed our claims, so no arrests were made.”

“not a surprise. they could literally walk in on a meeting and find a reason to explain it.”

“probably. we’re a little scared that...whatever happened to you left effects.” the hand not occupied by sal lifted up, and gently padded the skin below the masked boys eyes. the bags there were deep, deeper than larry had ever seen them - and he’d seen them BAD. hands trailed down to arms and lifted them to expose the bright blue veins and easily bruised skin. “i can’t imagine you got out of this unscathed. but it’s okay. you’re awake, and we’re gonna deal with it together, ok? not one without the other.”

sal nodded slowly, and the two merged together, pressing their foreheads against one another and breathing peacefully for a moment. 

“i love you more than anything.” larry mumbled. “i don’t know what i would do without you. i need you in my life, sally face. and i’m gonna- beat the shit out of someone for doing this to you.”

“that sounds like less of a threat and more of a promise.”

“that’s because it is.” larry shared a small smile, one of his first in a number of days. “go back to sleep, sal. you look exhausted. you’re awake, and i’m here to take care of you. no worries.”

sal nodded slowly and sunk back into bed, but peeled open an eye last minute to look at the other. “you better go get something to eat. and go home tonight, i’ll be fine. sleep in an actual bed.”

although larry knew he wouldn’t commit himself to all of those requests, he nodded just the same to satiate the other. “i will. go to bed, sally face.”

“g’night, larry face.” 

larry leaned down, pressed a kiss to the top of sal’s head, and waited just a few more minutes before rising from his chair to meet ashley and lisa in the cafeteria.


End file.
